BACK IN AND THEN STRAIGHT OUT OF MY BOX

Wednesday 24th March 2025

EAGLE & CHILD PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY

v PHIL BRADSHAW W 21-14 (off 3-3)

Prior to the home friendly, I was already booked in for practice with Aaron Hayhurst a little earlier in the evening to see if I could get my hands back on the Hargreaves Cup. 

I was disappointed not to show my new Thursday night team captain where I'm at and give him a decent game.
Aaron put me back in my box, beating me convincingly over two matches. The lad was on fire and even against my best game I strongly suspect I would still have been firmly put in my place.
After a 12-21 (recovering from 1-11 at least) and then 6-21 mauling (I was even 5-0 up in that second game!) other bowlers started turning up in their droves for the evening's friendly match and I retreated to a greenside bench to take stock for three quarters of an hour.
When the bell rang for the start, my name was called out straight away to play Phil Bradshaw and I quickly shot up off my backside and was up for it.
I've played Phil a couple of times before in club matches and have enjoyed both the challenge and his company during a game. Phil was undisputed best player at the club a few years back. He doesn't play quite as much now and I'm not even sure if he'd rolled at all since last Autumn, but he's the sort of experienced player who can just pick up some woods and still play to a good standard.
The break after the hiding from Hayhurst did me good. I played a solid game against Phil and bowls left my hand with much more belief. It was a good game which after a few ends going either way, found myself getting some points ahead and being consistent enough to stay there.
From being put back in my box, it felt like I had clawed out of it again in the very same evening. 

LOVING IT UNDER THE LONGRIDGE FLOODLIGHTS

Wednesday 17th March 2025

LONGRIDGE SPRING FLOODLIT SINGLES

At Longridge Cons

Coming very close to finals night in this competition last Autumn, the memory of that bowling happy place has since been dimmed by a less than encouraging Winter and even though practice has been going really well since gearing up for the Spring restart, there was a niggling doubt that I could rekindle any sort of form from that evening in October.
Oh me of little faith in myself.
Longridge Cons has become the unlikely venue where some true bowling potential comes to fruition.
Autumn's effort was equalled in that I reached round three again, perhaps eclipsed in that I felt I played even better.
There were a few blips and a few tactical errors to pick out, but generally speaking I bowled tight and finally felt naturally at ease when mixing it in the singles competition environment. 
Something has clicked.

FIRST ROUND QUALIFIER
v SIMON PEARSON (Accrington) W 21-12 (off 3-3)

Simon won the toss but his first bowl was wayward, I got in there straight away and seemed to take control of proceedings from there to win the first ten points and was giving my opponent very little slack. I was bowling with confidence and although at 13-3 my occupation of the block was finally broken, I didn't give Simon much room for a comeback, limiting him to mainly singles and breaking him often enough to maintain that early lead and feeling unusually comfortable enough on the way to round two.

SECOND ROUND QUALIFIER
v JOHN BARNES W 21-15 (off 3-3)

This game started out with little in it but after the early jousting of working each other out, I once again found myself building a healthy lead and was playing even better, which I needed to against John with most ends tightly contested.
My opponent did get himself a good spell with the block and started putting up excellent leads, but the key to holding on to supremacy in the match was limiting him to single pointers and keeping a bit of pressure on rather than feeling it myself.
A couple of breaks during this period was enough to see out the match. I felt I could take my chances when the opportunities came and that's what I did. This was easily a game that would have got away from me in a not too distant past. But things seem to be on the up. Bowls are leaving my hand in a particular way and there is a confidence growing in what I am doing.

THIRD ROUND QUALIFIER 

v JONATHAN LACEY (East Lancs) L 13-21 (off 3-3)
Just before going on for round three, Sam Patterson rather strangely mistakes me for his second round opponent Andy Lund and offers me a consolidatory pint. 

"Oh cheers", I said "But you haven't beat me..." and then my mate Mr Lee who came to watch, chips in with me at the same time... "YET!!". It was funny.

(OK, so you probably had to be there)

I could have been playing Patterson in the next match, but instead I got perhaps the toughest draw left in home bowler Jonathan Lacey, who I came across in doubles last month.
The handicap system is no longer a thing at the Longridge comp with homesters starting equally off three and the only forfeit being that their opponents start with the block.
I think it's fair enough.
Besides, I started well and kept hold of the jack for the first few ends which helped me settle down up against the deft left hand of this county player. 

At 7-7, on Jonathan's round peg mark in to the merciless tricky corner that was running quite fast for the time of year, I'm holding one with a perfectly weighted first bowl, my opponent attacks but misses and I mop up two with a replica second. 9-7 and absolutely in the game, but I blew it next end with my lead a few feet short, running through a couple of feet with my second and Mr Lacey instantly levelling the match putting two well placed winners in between.
It was a key end in the match as Jonathan edged in to the lead but at 11-14 I was still being a nuisance and once again limiting an opponent to mainly singles.
I just couldn't get back in much after that though as Jonathan kept picking up singles and many by some very slight margins. Maybe half a dozen measures proved unfavourable overall, including the last end when I just missed his holding bowl with a bit of umph behind it and instead took out the jack which sailed towards the far corner and stayed in for an unusually long distance measure that required long tapes, but which didn't go my way again.

A couple of two's conceded did do the damage and Jonathan was just too good, which I knew full well before we started, but he had to put very good bowls up to get rid of me and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, every second of it in fact as I did every second of the whole evening.

It's put me in a good place for the start of the league season in a couple of weeks. 
John Hanson's biennial floodlit competitions have become an enjoyable ritual. I love the green and the very friendly set up there. As I have probably gushed before, Gentleman John is a great host, the greenkeepers do an amazing job with the playing surface in impeccable condition and running absolutely beautifully.
I was pleased John & Co. got the weather too. Dry and settled is as good as you can ask for and from all four qualifying nights through to Finals Night on Friday, the elements behaved themselves. 

WINTER OF DISCONTENT

As Autumn descended in to Winter I suprisingly found myself experiencing a growing sense of disillusionment with bowling during those dark, damp and cold months.

This is a total moan fest coming up, although the fact could be that I'm simply not good enough to adapt to cold season bowls. 

I remember thinking when I first started out in this game that Winter bowling sounded like a bad idea. I tried it and actually enjoyed it for a couple of years, but now my worm has turned again. Generally and so far as the greens at Fox Lane are concerned, I can't play as well as I feel I ought to be doing and have got a bit fed up with it.

In terms of logistics, team changes resulted in a squeeze on consistent game time. Meanwhile, not enough light in the day or unsuitable weather prevented enough practice time and particularly since the turn of the New Year.

Those two ingredients have been a recipe for inconsistency, lack of confidence and a feeling I've regressed from a high point reached at the tail end of last Summer.
As such, the all-important enjoyment factor has waned.
To an extent, Winter bowls has felt like a waste of time that could be spent with more valuable intent. The very fact my game hasn't progressed, combined with all the standing around in muscle seizing low temperatures doing nothing for my running fitness has put lots of stuff in perspective.
It's not helped that our Wednesday night team have had a poor season and been relegated. Our captain Steve had increased the team to seven fully commited players to contest just four places each week and so increased rotation means less of a run playing, add to that the disruption of postponements due to the weather and it's just been a total hotchpotch. Not knowing if you're playing and often right up to the start time if our skipper hasn't made his mind up which four to select has also become a niggle with me. Regardless, if the opportunity to play does arise, I'm rusty and if I land a toucher one minute, two clangers are likely to follow.

Playing in additional doubles leagues would probably keep me keener. I would be on a green more regularly and quite possibly playing better, but this seemingly obvious solution comes unstuck by the fact Winter League opportunities are few and far between and the reality is that I'm hardly a sought-after name to be on any captain's wishlist.
One thing I've noted about my game is that practice is essential to play well. There was a glimmer of hope very recently when I got a couple of sessions in during the week at St Paul's and it cannot be coincidence that I then played well in our last game of the season. Although only four days later but without a roll in between, I felt I'd lost the plot again in a knockout competition.
In a nutshell, Winter bowls 2025-26 doesn't appeal.
Two attempts at double competitions didn't go too great either. At Frenchwood in December, I partnered Aaron and we should have grasped a first round victory having led well, gone behind and then led again only to go down 20-21. A pity really, I felt if we could scrap through that match we might pick up a notch for round two.
More recently Nigel and I entered the familiar fray of Fox Lane for the annual doubles competition and whilst getting away with a less than potential fulfilling performance to ease through round one, a similar display of inconsistency saw county player Jonathan Lacey and Paul Howarth make reasonable mincemeat of us in round two.
I've not played at all since then. The best part of a month without a roll. St Paul's has closed until the new season and to be honest I've just needed a break from it all to refresh my enthusiasm.
I have to get practicing again very soon though. My home green at the Eagle will be a good few weeks until reopened, so back to the old needs-must of Astley Park. A roll is a roll.
It is hoped my Winter whinge here proves to have cathartic qualities. A fresh start begins at Longridge Floodlit Singles shortly and where last season finished well, an encouraging start to the new one is required to get my bowling back on track.